A third Israeli election within 12 months now appears more likely after political kingmaker Avigdor Liberman refused to back either Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, leaving both without the seats necessary to form a coalition.
Former defense minister Liberman blamed both men for their failure to compromise in order to reach a unity government before a midnight yesterday deadline expires for Gantz to form a government.
“If you ask me who is to blame for the situation? Both parties together, both Blue and White, and Likud,” said Liberman at a meeting of his Yisrael Beitenu party yesterday afternoon. “There was a blame game between the two parties, and in the end, it was a blame game without the wherewithal to make dramatic decisions.”
Liberman said he would not support a minority government on either side of the political divide. “The Arab Joint List party is really a fifth column. We should not hide that,” he said, referring to the parliamentary bloc of Arab parties, which had been touted as possibly supporting a center-left minority government led by Gantz.
And referring to the ultra-Orthodox religious parties, which would be essential in any right-wing government led by Netanyahu, Liberman said, “I am sorry to say that the Haredi parties are more and more becoming anti-Zionist parties, one should not deny that they are anti-Zionist.”
Liberman suggested changing the political system to overcome the current political deadlock in Israel, but most observers believe that effecting such a change would be extremely difficult without a functioning coalition. “All that we are seeing at the moment is a sure way to more elections,” said Liberman.
If Gantz fails to form a government by the deadline of midnight Wednesday (yesterday), the 120 members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, have three further weeks to put forward another member of Knesset with the backing of a majority of parliamentarians. If no third name emerges, new elections are automatically triggered, to be held three months later, with March 3 currently seen as the most probable da